


five getting night terrors

by goth_bee



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28490043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goth_bee/pseuds/goth_bee
Summary: i saw something about five getting night terrors and had to write thishis screams of terror wake diego on the middle of the night and of course diego has no idea what to do
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

a blood curdling scream pierced through the dark serenity of the house. 

up until that point it had been a pretty good day as far as diego was concerned; they had made it back to their own timeline and life was good. he was in the process of finding a new apartment but for the time being sleeping in his childhood bedroom in their father's mansion. luther, klaus and five were also there and alison would soon be joining them but was currently visiting her daughter and vanya who decided to continue her career as a violin teacher spent most of her time in her own apartment but would often stay with them on weekends. 

today was a tuesday though, so no vanya. 

diego slipped out of bed, instinctively snatching up his knife belt as he did so. he stood in the middle of his room for a moment, disorientated, waiting for his brain to wake up wondering what had woken him. a noise perhaps?. a scream, someone had definitely screamed. it had sounded like it was coming from above him. five was the only one who slept up there anymore. he must be being attacked. but by who? a feeling of dread grew in the pit of his stomach, it must be the commision, it had to be, who else would risk attacking them. they had turned on them for whatever reason and now they were getting rid of their biggest threat, five. 

suddenly alert diego raced out of his room, his bare feet slipping slightly on the smooth wooden floor. he took the stairs two at a time in his haste to help his brother. he got to the door and paused for a moment to press his ear against the wood to see if he could gauge some idea of what was going on inside, who many people there were. he frowned, confused. he couldn’t hear any movement only a soft whimpering like that of a petrified dog during a thunderstorm from within. he hesitated for a second but upon hearing a cry of what was unmistakably fear from his brother he burst in and nearly tripped over five curled up on the floor bathed in silvery moonlight and shivering uncontrollably despite the relative warmth of the room.

stepping back to regain his balance, diego flicked on the light and slowly approached five who appeared to be wrapped in the rough, canvas curtain he had ripped away from the window. five didn’t seem to register the change in light or diego’s presence at all and as he got nearer diego saw that his his face was a mask of pure terror; his eyes wide, sweat gleamed on his forehead and his hair was a mess. he was clutching his knees to his chests as tightly as he could, his hands griped onto opposite arms clenched so hard that his knuckled had turned white. 

“five?” diego asked, unnerved, ‘ what’s going on? what are you doing?’ 

five didn’t respond so diego crouched down to try to pry his hands away from his arms, sure that he was hurting himself. at his touch five’s head snapped up and his eyes met diego’s. impossibly his fear seemed to intensify.

he leaped to his feet stumbling away. 

“you!” he cried, “you’re not here. i’m not here. this isn’t real, you can’t trick me this time.”

“five? what are you talking about, you little shit? of course im real.” diego replied, confused and strangely hurt by the accusation. 

“no no no no no no no no..” five moaned, covering his hands with his face. “i need to get back, i don’t have time for this. i have to warn them, they can't die this time, not if i help them-” his voice rose, madly before he suddenly broke off and screamed again, falling to the floor and resuming the fetal position diego had found him in. eyes squeezed shut, still whimpering in fear. with a jolt it dawned on him that five was asleep, trapped in some kind of nightmare so vivid it took over all of his senses. 

“five, please wake up.” diego mumbled crouching next to him again to grab his shoulders. this time five didn’t react to the touch so diego shook him slightly. he stopped whimpering and seemed to relax slightly for a moment before his eyes flickered open. once again his eyes met diego’s before he swung his head wildly, taking in the situation around him. this time he was awake, diego was sure of it.

an expression of horror and disgust came across his face as he realized what had happened. he pulled himself out of diego’s grip, his face burning with embarrassment, five made a point of not telling his siblings what was going on in his head most of the time so to be caught in such a vulnerable situation apparently terrified him almost as much as whatever nightmare he'd been having.

“i.. don’t...if you so much as breathe a word of this i swear to god..i’ll..” his voice trailed off, cracking with shame which somewhat diminished the threat. Five held his gaze for a moment before disappearing in a flash of blue light.

the room suddenly felt strangely airless and diego had the odd feeling that he was trespassing, despite his good intentions he has seemed only to make things worse for his brother. feeling terrible he trudged back to his room wondering what part of his traumatising life five had been forced to relive. he wondered if five was doing the same, was he sat in some cold dark corner trying to hide from a life he so desperately tried to conceal from everyone else. finally diego started to understand a fraction of the horror that five had lived through.


	2. chapter 2

Over the next few days Diego watched as each morning five would come down looking more and more exhausted. He didn’t know if anyone else had noticed and didn’t really want to say anything, Five had seemed so ashamed when Diego found him that night, telling the others would probably just make it worse for him. Still, Diego thought, watching Five take a long drink from a coffee mug, staying silent and suffering through it alone wasn’t doing him much good. His eyes were heavily hooded, his skin looked pale and slightly waxy, his general appearance was just a bit dishevelled. On top of that he was more irritable than usual which made living with both him and Luther even more of a pain.   
Five looked up at him, as if aware Diego had been staring, his eyes narrowed coldly then he blinked away, leaving the empty cup to fall to the floor and shatter. Sighing, Diego picked up a brush to clean up the shards, lest an unsuspecting Klaus (who always insisted on being bare foot inside the house an often outside of it) stepped on it and got a piece of ceramic stuck in his foot. Five had been doing that a lot recently; avoiding him. If he and Five were in a room alone together he would leave pretty quickly, with or without an excuse and if he had to be in a room with him for any reason he would put as much distance between them as possible and interact with him as little as possible. Diego threw away the ruined mug and set about making himself breakfast.  
Diego was pretty sure that five hadn’t slept a wink since the night Diego found him on his bedroom floor, whether that from terror of what he saw when he tried to sleep or fear of being found like that again Diego couldn’t be sure. Five continued to avoid Diego so he forced himself to put in out of his mind, if Five wasn’t going to let Diego talk to him, he couldn’t see that there was much could do  
It wasn't until about a week after the incident that Diego actually got the chance to talk to him about it.  
He was walking up the main staircase at about three in the afternoon when he found Five sat on one of the steps with his head between his knees, unmoving. His hair was a mess, and his feet were bare, almost as if he’d gotten part way through dressing himself then given up at the last hurdle  
“Five?” He didn’t respond, and Diego gave him a gentle nudge with his foot, he jolted, blinking madly. He had been asleep. “Five, you can’t carry on like this.”   
Five squinted up at him through sleepy eyes, his face seemed to twist for a second and Diego was sure he was about to spit back some nasty retort or blink away again then he just seemed to give up, the fight and resistance seemed to drain from him and instead he leant his head back against the wall behind him and just sat there looking defeated.   
“Yea I know” he replied, in a voice completely devoid of emotion.  
“The other night, what was that?” Diego asked carefully, sitting down on the step just above his brother.  
“I…” he trailed off unsure where to start then glanced around to check that nobody else was in earshot. “Every time I try to sleep, I see you all dead. I go back to the apocalypse and find your bodies, I watch you disintegrate in a nuclear explosion, I watch as she shoots you all, dead before you hit the floor. Over and over it just plays through my head.” His voice cracked and he pressed his palms into his eyes allowing himself a single, racking sob that shook his entire ting body. “Diego, I can’t take it anymore. All I can think is what if one day I’m not there or I fail, and you all die because of my incompetence.”  
Diego reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, unsure how else to react; Five was always so private, so secretive. This display of emotion was so open and uncharacteristic that Diego was at a loss for words. He could only imagine what Five had lived through and the sheer amount of pressure he put himself under. Alison would be coming home in a few days and Diego reckoned she would be able to deal with this much better than he could, being a mother and all but he was hesitant to suggest Five talk to her, for one Diego could be sure that if he hadn’t stumbled in on him no one would know anything was wrong so it didn’t seem likely that he would willingly reveal his struggles to anyone else and for another it seemed equally unlikely that he would be this open again.  
“I can’t pretend to know how to help you,” Diego started, to which Five raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Hey, hey I have got something to say here, I can just leave you to wallow in self-pity if you’d prefer.”   
Five rolled his hand, his head once again resting on his knees, indicating Diego should continue speaking.   
“Thank you. Sure, you have saved us all quite a few times and that is impressive and amazing, but you forget that we’ve all done our fair share of keeping each other alive. I think we can agree that without any one of us none of us would have made it through the past through weeks. We’re a team and yes that means you have responsibility for us, but it also means that we have responsibility for you, and we all have your back. We will support you just as much as you have and continue to support us. You don’t have to face your fears alone.”   
Five raised his head and smiled slightly.  
“For now, though, I think you need some rest, you’re really starting to get on my nerves and you’re no use to anyone if you can’t climb the stairs without having a nap halfway through.” Diego told him. He didn’t respond and Diego glanced at him to see he’d fallen asleep again. Against all better judgement Diego picked him up gently, he hummed vaguely in protest but allowed himself to be carried to his room. Diego set him down on his bed and was leaving when Five mumbled something inaudible.   
“what was that?” Diego called back.   
“Can you please stay.” Five repeated slightly louder.   
Diego sat down in the armchair next to his bed and eventually dozed off as well. It wasn’t until he heard Luther calling something from downstairs nearly an hour later that he did move. He glanced over at Five who was now snoring softly and looking at piece for the first time in a long while. He wouldn’t wake up until 10 the next morning and leaving Diego to explain his absence at dinner (he said that five had caught some stomach bug and decided to turn in early and wasn’t hungry which the others seemed to believe).   
For the first time since he’d disappeared all those years ago Five finally started to relax.


End file.
